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BuzzFeed to start developing casual games

$50 million funding will give rapidly growing site an advantage in game development

BuzzFeed will fund the development of casual games as it seeks to expand its already vast online audience.

Speaking to VentureBeat, BuzzFeed's vice president of product Chris Johanesen described the site's plans to make casual games a part of its strategy. Johanesen said that games fit broadly with BuzzFeed's attempts to make its readers engage with, rather than just consume, its content.

As a result of the decision, BuzzFeed will assemble a team of in-house developers to work on games and quizzes, mostly supported by the $50 million in funding it raised last month. At present, BuzzFeed gets 130 million MAUs a month.

Johanesen was very clear that BuzzFeed has no intention of competing with big-budget games. He also noted that game features and mechanics could play a role in advertising.